Abstract

We demonstrate a novel technique for locking and tuning of a near-degenerate nanosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) using a transversely chirped volume Bragg grating. When the grating was translated, the OPO signal wavelength could be tuned from 1011to1023nm(3.5THz). The OPO was based on a periodically poled KTiOPO4 as a nonlinear crystal and was pumped at 532nm with up to 1.9mJ of energy. The generated signal at an energy of 0.37mJ had a bandwidth of 0.50nm and a suppression of broadband background of >30dB. The demonstrated technique is widely applicable for the construction of narrowband tunable sources.